Appalling Rise in Malware During 2006

PandaLabs has found that the amount of fresh malware designed every year grew by 25, 818% over the last seven years. "Statistics reveal that the number of malware in circulation has increased in the recent past, and the trend is still on," explained PandaLabs' technical director Luis Corrons. Echannelline published this on May 30, 2007.

In its yearly report, presented in March 2007, PandaLabs has notified that malware grew 172% during 2006. Fusion of various malware categories remained the major trend during the year.

Massive infections resulting from a single Trojan horse have practically vanished. Now, there are multiple variants that silently make their way into the PCs and infect them. Corrons further explains that the risk of viruses lies mainly in the very fact that trojans can be conveniently altered to affect various banks, online casinos, payment platforms, etc. Echannelline published this on May 30, 2007.

"The users are under the false impression of security, when they think that there's no danger. As a matter of fact, there's now even more malicious code in circulation than ever. Last year saw an alarming rise in the number of malware, which are comparable to the total malware seen over the previous 15 years," as per Corrons. C-enter published Corrons' statement during March 2007.

There's also been a change in the kind of malicious codes most recurrently used by the online thieves over the years. However, during 2000 malicious code made up 81% of all fresh malware that PandaLabs had detected, during the year 2006 it was just 1%. On the other hand, trojans grew from 14% and reached 53% during the same period.

Hybrid malware grew considerably during 2006, and as per PandaLabs the trend will continue this year (2007) as well. An example could be Trojans' or worms' fusion with rootkits. Consequently, it'll be more complex to differentiate between various malware families in future.

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» SPAMfighter News - 6/11/2007